There are many circumstances in which it is necessary or desirable for an organization to provide products (such as compact discs, plastic bottles, promotional clothing, signage, or the like) printed (typically screen printed) at a plurality of geographically remote locations, yet provide highly controlled consistency of the colors of the printed products. The geographically remote facilities may be independent vendors, and/or may be printing locations for a particular organization, and the facilities may be located on different continents, and/or in geographically remote places within different countries and/or within the same country.
Obtaining strict uniformity of the colors of the printed products at geographically remote locations has been a very difficult task in the past. Even if the same inks are supplied by a common vendor to each of the geographically remote locations, the colors may turn out different due to different environmental conditions at the geographically remote locations. For example, different locations may use different equipment, have different temperature and humidity conditions, and/or have differences in local practice or local additives, that result in a particular color looking different on a printed product from one location than in another even if exactly the same ink is supplied by a common vendor.
According to the present invention, the problems set forth above are greatly reduced, and in fact typically substantially eliminated, by providing a method and/or kit to geographically remote facilities that allows printing of products (which are typically objects, such as compact discs, plastic bottles, promotional clothing, or signage, and not documents), typically by screen printing, so that products produced at each of the geographically remote locations have colors that are substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye from one location to the next. The invention is versatile and applicable to geographically remote locations within the same organization, and/or independent contractors/venders which produce the products at remote locations for a-particular organization.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of insuring precise color consistency of substantially identical printed products printed at a plurality of different geographically remote locations having different environmental criteria, comprising: a) Specifying a plurality of precisely defined colors to be printed on the products. b) Determining a plurality of different reproducible ink formulation for each of the plurality of precisely defined colors, the plurality of formulations differing depending upon the different environmental criteria so that regardless of the environmental criteria the colors when printed will be substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye. And c) distributing the formulations from b), and supplying ink for use in formulating inks based on the formulations, to the plurality of different geographically remote locations, so that products may be printed at each of the geographically remote locations which have colors that are substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye from one location to the other.
The method as set forth above may further comprise d) screen printing the products at the geographically remote locations with the precisely defined colors. Also, c) may be further practiced to distribute with each formulation a sample product having the precisely defined colors printed thereon. The method may also comprise e) distributing to each of the geographically remote locations common equipment for use in at least one of verifying, formulating ink, and printing of the precisely defined colors. For example e) is further practiced by distributing a common spectrophotometer, and the method further comprises f) verifying the colors to be printed by comparing the colors on the sample to specimen colors printed at one of the geographically remote locations. While a wide variety of products may be used, the invention is particularly applicable for compact discs, and c) may be practiced by distributing sample compact discs.
In the method c) may be further practiced by distributing the formulations in the form of cards, each card having the complete formulation for each precisely defined color, including the various inks and percentages of the various inks making up each color, imaged thereon. Also, c) may be still further practiced by distributing cards having the ink formulations on one face thereof, and product-simulating indicia on another face thereof, which product-simulating indicia accurately simulates the sample product, including the precisely defined colors thereof. Also c) may be further practiced by distributing each sample product and corresponding color formulation card together in a set, releasably held together (e.g. in a carrier).
The method may also further comprise f) obtaining actual printed product samples from each of the geographically remote locations and approving the samples; and after d), e) running screen printing production runs of the printed products and distributing the printed products from the production runs.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of insuring precise color consistency of substantially identical printed products printed at a plurality of different geographically remote locations having different environmental criteria, comprising: a) Specifying a plurality of precisely defined colors to be printed on the products. b) Determining a plurality of different reproducible ink formulation for each of the plurality of precisely defined colors, the plurality of formulations differing depending upon the different environmental criteria so that regardless of the environmental criteria the colors when printed will be substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye. And c) distributing the formulations from b) to the plurality of different geographically remote locations, so that products may be printed at each of the geographically remote locations which have colors that are substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye from one location to the other.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of insuring precise color consistency of substantially identical printed products printed at a plurality of different geographically remote locations, comprising: a) Specifying a plurality of precisely defined colors to be printed on the products. b) Determining a reproducible ink formulation for each of the plurality of precisely defined colors. c) Screen printing a plurality of substantially identical sample products using the ink formulations from b). And d) distributing the formulations from b) and a sample product from c) to each of the plurality of different geographically remote locations, so that products may be printed at each of the geographically remote locations corresponding to the sample products, and which have colors that are substantially indistinguishable by the naked human eye from one location to the other.
Also in the method according to this aspect of the invention, d) may be further practiced by supplying ink for use in formulating inks based on the formulations to each of the geographically remote locations. Also b) and d) may be further practiced by distributing the formulations in the form of cards, each card having the complete formulation for each precisely defined color, including the various inks and percentages of the various inks making up each color, imaged thereon; and b) and d) may be still further practiced by distributing cards having the ink formulations on one face thereof, and product-simulating indicia on another face thereof, which product-simulating indicia accurately simulates the sample product, including the precisely defined colors thereof. The method may still further comprise e) obtaining actual printed product samples from each of the geographically remote locations and approving the samples; and after f) running production runs of the printed products and distributing the printed products from the production runs. Also, d) may be further practiced by distributing each sample product and corresponding color formulation card together in a set, releasably held together.
The invention also relates to a plurality of substantially identical products (such as compact discs) screen printed at geographically remote locations by practicing any of the methods as set forth above.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a plurality of sets of substantially identical product-printing facilitating kits, each set comprising: A sample product having a plurality of predetermined precisely defined colors printed thereon with precisely formulated colored inks. And a formulation card having indicia thereon defining the precise formulation for each of the precisely formulated colored inks.
The sample product may comprise a substantially flat product, such as a compact disc or signage. Each set may further comprise a carrier having at least first and second pockets dimensioned to fit the product (e.g. CD) and card, respectively, therein, the product disposed in the first pocket and the card in the second pocket. The card may have first and second faces, with the formulation indicia imaged on the first face, and product simulating indicia imaged on the second face, which product simulating indicia accurately simulates the sample product, including the precisely defined colors thereof.
It is the primary object of the present invention to insure printing of products at geographically remote locations that have colors that are so precisely matched that they are substantially indistinguishable from each other by the naked human eye. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention and from the appended claims.